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telyHD Review

June 14, 2013


The telyHD appliance brings powerful, affordable HD video conferencing to SMBs and larger enterprises, rivaling high-end telepresence platforms from Cisco, LifeSize, and Polycom. Further, TelyHD sports Skype integration, granting it access to perhaps the largest videoconferencing user base, which includes Skype clients running on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The Enterprise Edition enables the telyHD appliance to also join a BlueJeans meeting. I was an early beta reviewer for BlueJean's videoconferencing and HD content sharing service back in 2011 and was impressed with their service.

NSA Can Wiretap Skype, Google & Facebook - But Not WebRTC

June 7, 2013


                                             Image Courtesy of the Guardian

According to the Guardian, the NSA has the capability of tap in to user data of Google, Skype, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and more. This is disturbing on so many levels, especially after revelation that Verizon gave the government access to over 100 million Americans' phone records. A friend suggested.

So now that P2P Skype is not as "secure" as many were led to believe, what sort of secure P2P VoIP is available? Well, there is Phil Zimmerman's Zfone Project, which Zfone uses a proprietary protocol called ZRTP.




CertainSafe, the Virtual Safety Deposit Box, Drives Secure Collaboration

June 3, 2013

I reviewed CertainSafe for TMC Labs to be published in TMC's Internet Telephony Magazine. Check out an early sneak peek here...

TMC Labs learned about a new product launching by TransCertain called CertainSafe that could be a game changer when it comes to cloud-based collaboration. Fortune 1000 companies and indeed even smaller companies are reluctant to put their most sensitive and confidential data in the cloud to be shared with their partners and customers. But what if you could encrypt the data in the cloud using AES256 encryption or any encryption algorithm of your choice, and combine that with “Tokenization”?

SIP Trunking - What You Don't Know Could Cost You!

April 30, 2013

SIP trunking is one of the best ways for businesses to save money on telecom costs, but it's not without its pitfalls, including: not all SIP trunking providers are created equal, latency / QoS issues, SLAs, and more. If you are the decision maker trusting your critical business phone calls it's perhaps easier to choose an expensive PRI over SIP trunks because you know it will work. It's like the old adage "No one ever got fired for buying IBM", which was later adopter by Cisco. The fear of choosing a SIP trunk, even if it saves hundreds of dollars may be too much for a decision maker to put their neck on the line if voice quality issues crop up.



TMC in conjunction with Sonus Networks is putting on one-day "Putting SIP to Work" seminars across the country.



Grandstream GXP2200 Review

April 8, 2013


The Grandstream GXP2200 Gigabit IP phone is another Android-based IP phone in a growing line of Android-based IP phones that includes the Panasonic KX-UT670, CloudTC, and the ESI 250. A couple years ago I espoused the benefits of a tablet-based desktop phone running either iOS or Android, so that this "universal" device becomes your portable tablet/computer and your desktop IP phone. We're not quite there yet, since all the Android desktop IP phones are not battery powered and require either a Power over Ethernet (PoE) or AC adapter for power. Further, as with anything, cost will play a role.

Detailed WebRTC Research Report Out

April 1, 2013

Well, it was inevitable - a detailed and possibly first WebRTC research report is out with full analysis of the WebRTC marketplace & value chain. I've been blogging on VoIP since 2004 and writing about VoIP since 1996, when I wrote what I believe was the first VoIP product review (Vocaltec). But I've never been as excited about a new VoIP technology as I am WebRTC. WebRTC is going to be huge, which is why TMC launched a show WebRTC Conference & Expo focused exclusively on WebRTC.

So I'm interested to check out this research report which measures 160 pages in length, including detailed commentary, analysis, forecasts and over 50 tables and charts with over 70 WebRTC companies discussed.


Skype for Windows Phone 8 Gets HD First & More Feature Love

March 19, 2013

Today, Skype released an update for the Skype for Windows Phone 8 Preview, version 2.4, which for the first time ever adds HD video calling to a mobile version of Skype. This version leverages the hardware acceleration capability of Windows Phone 8 to enable the HD video experience.

It offers VGA video (640x480) on lower end handsets and 720P HD on higher-end devices including the Nokia Lumia 920, HTC 8X and Samsung Ativ S. Importantly, the app can intelligently determines the best quality available based on the speed of your connection. They also added People Hub integration, landscape mode for calls, and the ability to switch between front and back cameras.


Finally, the Microsoft acquisition of Skype appears to be paying dividends. Get the updated version now from Windows Phone Store.




Windows 8 Sync Settings - Security Hole

February 15, 2013


Windows 8 has a cool new feature that lets you login with your cloud-based Microsoft account (@hotmail.com, @live.com, @outlook.com) and it will synchronize your settings between Windows 8 PCs, but with a "security catch". We'll get into that in a moment. First, here's a list of features and settings that you can sync:
  • Personalize - Colors, background, lock screen, and your account picture
  • Desktop personalization - Themes, taskbar, high contrast, and more
  • Passwords - sign-in info for some apps, websites, networks, and HomeGroup
  • Ease of Access - Settings for Narrator, Magnifier, and more
  • Language preferences - Keyboards, other input methods, display language, and more
  • App settings - Certain settings in your apps, but not all
  • Browser settings - Internet Explorer history and bookmarks/favorites
  • Other Windows settings - Windows Explorer, mouse settings, and more
  • Sign-in info - For some apps, websites, networks, and HomeGroup
Looking at this list, you'd probably be just as excited as me. If you have a Windows 8 tablet and a Windows 8 PC, now you can easily view the recent websites you viewed in either due to the  "shared" History.

Japan Goes the Way of the Dodo & Still Supports Fax

February 14, 2013


I've admired Japan for their innovations since the mid 1970s, including the Sony Walkman, the Sony portable CD player, and how their took on the American automobile juggernaut to offer smaller, more fuel efficient, and yes, more reliable cars. While Japan was killing American companies with their superior consumer electronics, I couldn't help but admire their ingenuity.

Well, to my shock and horror I just read a NY Times piece claiming that fax is alive and well in Japan and in fact the Japanese are reticent to ever give it up. Say what? In the age of email, social media, online banking, etc.


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